Friday, March 25, 2011

Finished

I finished Eugene Peterson'sbook last night. The bookdemanded me to read.To think. To hear a man'slife story about his vocation.

I learned how he was asked to"translate" the NT into The Message.He has written a few of thechapters in the NT in ordinarylanguage for his congregation.Then after he retired from almost 30years as pastor of the PresbyterianChurch in Maryland , he was askedby someone at Nav Press who hadcopies of those chapters. This guygave those copies to people so hewanted Peterson to do the whole NT.

Eugene was going toteach one class at a seminaryin Pittsburgh. Now hehad the time. He didn't really considerit a translation but a way to under-stand in the language of thehearers. He wrote:

"When Paul of Tarsus wrote a letter, the people who received it understood it instantly, When the prophet Isaiah preached a sermon, I can't imagine that people went to the library to figure it out. That was the basic premise under which I worked. I began with the New Testament in the Greek --- a rough and jagged language, not so grammatically clean. I just typed out a page the way I thought it would have sounded to the Galatian"

Second son , Brad, is 25 today!Heading out to celebrate tonight!Have a good weekend.